That the said Israel Smith hath informed your Committee that the Township of Brattleborough aforesaid labours under many Inconveniences and Disadvantages some of which are common to the Counties of Cumberland Gloucester & Charlotte others peculiar to some of the Inhabitants of the first of the said Counties and particularly the Township aforesaid. ;

Among the former kind the first in order is the uncertainty of Titles to Land within the said Counties arising from the Peculiarities of their first Settlement & Cultivation too numerous to recite in this Report. By reason of which uncertainty unless some mode is adopted by the Legislature for the quieting of

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938 CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE

Titles many of the honest Inhabitants of the said Counties must be ruined by legal Contests with each other.

The second is the Defect of Title under this State which in some instances could not be obtained from the former Government by Reason of prior Grants and other Circumstances which it may not be proper to mention and which in other Instances was attended with such enormous Expence as to deter many who would otherwise have exerted themselves to procure it. An Evil which cannot be fully obviated but by some general act for the Confirmation of Lands within the said Counties.

The third general Inconvenience complained of is the Distance of the said Counties from the former Seat of Government. By reason whereof the obtaining of Justice is on the one Hand rendered laborious tedious and expensive to the Inhabitants and on the other the Influence of the said Government over such Inhabitants is weak and disipated. From whence results a want of